A while back I read an article about a problem with bullying via text-messaging. My daughter was, at the time, too young for a cell phone. I felt bad for the kids. Fast forward a couple of years and I find myself adding a phone and phone number for my daughter to my plan. My focus on personal security was increasing, dramatically. The point of the phone was to give my daughter an easy way…
Well, that was fun. The best part is that I know where I put the files! I’m kind of pumped to have the story on a site where everyone can easily get back to it. Of course it’s a tree falling in the forest as no one knows where the forest is. On December 1 I will send out my usual email. Next year will be the 30th year. I wonder what to do for…
Download PDF The Toronto Eaton’s Centre at Christmas time is a great place for chance encounters but, because of the way my brain is wired up, it’s rare that I’m ever surprised. In a significant exception, on December 13, 2013 Kendra (I didn’t yet know her name) seemed to appear out of nowhere on the third level of the Eaton’s Centre near the Trinity Square entrance. Our shoulders connected hard and I grabbed for her,…
Never plan to have a stomach flu when preparing for December 1 deadlines. Virtually no one knows this site is ready. But I did have a draft of 2013’s story all ready. My wife took a run at it and I realized from her feedback that the whole opening isn’t working. It makes the connection between the two characters rushed, which is no fun. The short story format pushes you to keep the story to…
I am relieved that I got all the files converted. I’m not announcing this site until Dec 1, but it was such a pain to go from Word to WordPress. It was made worse when I used typographic techniques (like changing fonts). The various tools to convert Word to plain HTML either are super clean or — especially Microsoft — leave too much dreck. It was fun trying to find thumbnail images for the stories…
Recap (See The Smudge on Orion’s Belt for details.) In 2008, Mélanie Beauchamp discovered an usual object heading toward Earth. On December 25, 2009 she was witness to The Beauchamp Object being manoeuvred into orbit around Earth. The Object was the first piece of alien space junk ever, measuring 350 km long, 140 km at its widest and 70 km at its highest. And there it sat, in a slowly decaying orbit. January 27, 2012…
Denzel: Jack arrived at my door shortly after his bicycle accident. Usual idiot. He left the house thinking he was being a good father and husband by getting on his mountain bike and blasting around the city instead of doing what he wanted to do: whack the shit out of his wife, son and daughter. Of course, he was too much of a man to wear a helmet so, when he came off the Burrard…
Lying in bed dying of liver disease is pretty boring. But the ghost was making it interesting. He kept wandering around the room, sitting impatiently in a chair, standing and looking at my chart, looking over the nurses and doctors’ shoulders as they did their usual rounds. I didn’t know this guy. He looked around my age – 52 – and was anglo-looking, taller than me. I assumed he was a ghost because no one…
December 22, 2008 Mélanie Beauchamp was star gazing. During the Christmas period of 2008, Vancouver had enjoyed unusual amounts of snow with lower than normal temperatures. Mélanie thought she’d dodged the weather in Montreal by coming to Vancouver to visit friends. Montrealers, at least, knew how to use shovels. Vancouverites, when they try to clear snow, seem to make the attempt with garden spades and flimsy plastic shovels. Mélanie did not have astronomy on her…
Tom entered his Yaletown apartment, put his laptop case on the hall book case and concluded that Christmastime was a bad time to visit the doctor. It was December 22, a Monday, and it was nearly 1 PM. He had chosen not to go back to the office after his visit to the doctor. He had text-messaged his staff to say he was afflicted with a bad case of It’s-Nearly-Christmasitis: a good lie that involved…